Marcellus Wiley Explains to Draymond Green the Difference Between "Different Realities" and "Double Standards"
I was going to refute the flawed thinking underlying Draymond Green's recent rant about "double standards" before I realized that Marcellus Wiley--a Columbia University graduate and a retired 10 year NFL veteran who earned Pro Bowl and All-Pro honors in 2001--had already done a brilliant and detailed analysis about why he disagrees with Draymond Green's assertion about alleged double standards in the NBA.
In case you missed it, Green is outraged because the Cleveland Cavaliers are not playing Andre Drummond while they decide whether to trade Drummond or to buy out his contract. Green ranted that there is a double standard permitting owners to force players to not play while James Harden was criticized for demanding to be traded by the Houston Rockets.
One important point that both Green and Wiley did not mention is that Harden did not merely ask to be traded; he openly quit on his team, and then he compounded matters by publicly saying that the talent surrounding him is not very good. So, Green's analogy failed to take into account the vast difference between an employee on a guaranteed contract not giving maximum effort and also undermining workplace morale versus an employer deciding that based on the best interests of all involved parties a particular employee should, in essence, be given a paid leave of absence.
The entire segment featuring Wiley is worth watching; here are some excerpts:
Emmanuel Acho begins the segment by asking Wiley, "Is there a double standard between teams and their star players?"
Wiley replies, "No, there is not a double standard." Wiley explains that this is not just an NBA issue or a sports issue but "a life issue." Wiley continues, "What's happening is Draymond is confusing what a lot of people are confusing: double standard with different worlds...Double standard implies that you're in the same world...I understand why people get confused, but the truth is we're in two different realities. Ask Michael Jordan, who is an owner. We [pro athletes] are employees, brother. I know we are glorified employees...[80,000] people showed up to just watch me work and not 80,000 people showed up at everybody's job/employment. But what happens from that perspective is you start to get a God complex. You start to lose your way. You start to realize that maybe I am not the same as other employees. Draymond Green and others need some real world friends to understand perspective. Because, when you are an employee there are two names on your check: yours, and whoever is paying you. You guys don't live in the same reality. It's just that simple. So, if you don't like bosses, be a boss--simple as that. Oh, you can't be a boss. Well, then, being a boss comes with its perks, comes with its privileges." Wiley then points out that salaries in the major sports leagues--the NBA, the NFL, MLB--have soared in the past decade, far outpacing inflation. He correctly notes that this is a major way that owners show respect to employees. He asks players like Green who claim to be disrespected, "What are your measurements? What are your metrics? This metric right here is undeniable. They are showing you respect."
Emmanuel Acho argues that the double standard consists of how fans perceive and react to players, and also how NFL contracts are "binding" on the players but are not guaranteed if the players gets cut. Regarding Acho's first point, fans have all kinds of opinions and standards--some fair, some not fair--but Green's point is that if owners are allowed to tell players to not play then players should also be able to not play--and, Wiley is correct that Green misunderstands the different reality between owning a business and being an employee of that business. Acho also misunderstands those different realities.
Regarding NFL contracts, they are different than NBA contracts because the only NFL money that is guaranteed for a player is the signing bonus, while most NBA contracts are fully guaranteed. However, Acho is wrong to call this a double standard. The correct phrase is "terms of employment." As Wiley said, if you don't like being an employee then be a boss: build a business from the ground up, or buy an existing business and run it however you want to run it. Wiley perceptively notes that Michael Jordan's perspective and public statements changed a lot after he made the transformation from employee to owner.
Wiley's intelligent analysis of the difference between being an owner and being an employee reminds me of my coverage of the 2011 NBA lockout, when I was almost the sole voice of reason. In one of my articles about the 2011 NBA lockout, I made a similar point about the difference between being an owner and being an employee, and I did so at a time when most media coverage betrayed an inability and/or unwillingness to understand the core issues, with Chris Sheridan incorrectly predicting that the lockout would end quickly, and Henry Abbott pretending that he better understands how to run an NBA franchise than NBA owners do. In contrast, I broke down the difference between being an owner and being an employee, and I correctly predicted, "No matter what Henry Abbott, the 'stat gurus' or Chris Sheridan say, the lockout will continue until the players consent to a fundamental restructuring of the NBA's business model--and the players have likely passed up the best offer they will receive; subsequent offers will be reduced by whatever amount of revenue the owners lose from cancelled games, starting with the first two weeks of the regular season that were officially wiped out just a few hours ago."
I had accurately predicted in February 2011 that there would be a long lockout in the fall of 2011, and by the time the owners and their employee players reached an agreement (along the lines of the agreement that I had predicted they would reach) the NBA experienced the second longest work stoppage in league history.
Accurate analysis is generally not popular, nor is it "clickbait," but I would prefer to understand the world as it is than live in a fantasy world devoid of reality and logic.
Labels: 2011 NBA lockout, Draymond Green, Marcellus Wiley, reality
posted by David Friedman @ 9:08 PM
3 Comments:
I refuse to believe it is so hard to understand... I rather think it is another agenda and attempt to force owners to this illogical thinking... which is futile exercise as owners wouldn't be where they are with this kind nonsense approach
Hi David,
I seem to recall in some interview with Bill Simmons, Larry Bird said he used to keep in mind that his success or failure on the court affected not only his own legacy, but the livelihoods of the team's staff, from the management down to the janitors, who depended on the amount of increased revenue and attention the franchise might get from winning. I like that sort of mentality and I wish more players had it in this era.
Keith:
That is a good point. There is a longer version of Wiley's segment--for which I was not able to find a link--in which he mentions the sense of entitlement that too many athletes have because they have skipped steps, going in many instances from impoverished backgrounds to millionaire status at a very young age. Wiley observed that athletes are surrounded by older people who are paid to pick up after them and take care of them, and that as a result too many athletes do not understand that they are highly paid employees, not owners.
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